Monday, February 21, 2011

The Gathering in the Desert is over and I must say it was a great weekend. I had a lot of fun and met some great players. The event organizer just posted the results and I must say I am happy with my results. Keeping in mind this was the first tournament I have participated in and I placed tenth. More importantly my army tied for fourth place for best appearance. Let me break down my games for you.

Game #1: Artifact, was a Draw
Game #2: Domination, was a Minor Loss
Game #3: Emissary, was a Draw
Game #4: Meeting Engagement, was a Draw
Game #5: Head of the Snake, was a Draw

Now let me talk about the event. Since I have nothing to compare it to I can't really say much. It was very well organized and everything was kept on track. One thing I really liked about the event were the awards given for each game. Each one of the awards were different based on the game that was being played. I received one of the awards for game #5 because my General died first, not a good thing, and the objective for this game was to kill the opponents General. The reason I pulled a draw on the game was because I also killed my opponents General. These awards made the tournament fun because each game gave the players a chance to win something during the weekend. This was such a great event I will be participating in next years event.

Outside of participating in such a great event I need to learn more about the rules. I made some mistakes that had to be corrected by my opponents. I am still new to this gaming system and need to really get these rules down. By next year I will be better prepared with the rules of the game and I will have a new army for my opponents.

The event organizer has not posted all the photos from the event however if you want to check it out head over to Gathering in the Desert. If you check back towards the end of the week you will see all the great tables we played on and the action shots.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Well the big weekend is upon me. When I set out with this challenge my goal was to learn a new gaming system, paint an army and play in a tournament. The last part of my challenge will be this weekend at The Gathering in the Desert tournament. I am looking forward to meeting all the players and just having a great weekend playing games.

Hanging out with the local players I have developed a new appreciation for some of the finer details in gaming. The event organizer creates some of the best terrain for gaming. I had a chance to help him creating some of this terrain and playing on some of his gaming tables. It really changed the game for me. If you are interested in seeing some of the tables we will be playing on take a look at his blog page, Cursed Treasures. It is this new appreciation that has moved me to make the Commands and Colors board. I now understand the importance of having a painted army and terrain that compliments the armies that are being played.

I also witnessed something else during this challenge. The shop that this tournament is being held happens to be my local gaming shop. The shop I hang out at is a one man show. The shop owner, Darren, is a great guy and he does all he can to ensure that his customers have a place to play games. One of the problems with this is that some of the customers don't help with keeping the shop clean and he is busy running the shop and he doesn't always have the time to clean the shop. He knew he had this tournament coming up this weekend and put the word out to his customers to help get the shop ready for this weekend. I was shocked and surprised to see how many people showed up to help. We all spent the day cleaning the place up and getting things ready. I was impressed with what we all got done and feel that this will just ensure that everyone has a great time this weekend. This lead me to ask what type of a customer I am to my local shop. I know personally I do everything I can to make sure the shop is kept up. Its the little things I do to help, I police the shop for trash and if I see produce out of place I put it back ware it belongs. Ultimately it is the shop owners job to make sure his shop is kept clean and presentable to the public. I just know how much work goes into running a business and cleaning is not always the top priority. He offers his customers a place to play and if customers would just pick up after themselves he wouldn't have had to ask for help. Cleaning up after yourself is your way of saying thanks for letting me play at your shop. I want to personally say thanks to everyone that came out yesterday and help clean the shop, your efforts will be enjoyed by all this weekend.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

I was introduced to a new game and found it real enjoyable, Commands and Colors: Napoleonics. I was familiar with the games mechanics playing Memoir 44. A short outline of the game goes like this, movement is card driven, combat is dice driven, it is played on a board and the units are wooden blocks with unit stickers on both sides. The game comes with a booklet of scenarios that you can play with a friend. If you want to learn more about the game I am sure you can find thousands of reviews on-line.

I have had an interest playing a Napoleonics game for some time now. The challenge has always been finding a game that was fun to play. Most of the games I have played in the past were not much fun to play. The game mechanics were too detailed and chart heavy. I wanted something that was fast paced and this game fits the bill.

Me being me, I can't be happy just playing this game the way it is designed. After playing the game with a friend we talked about converting this game so we can use miniatures. We talked about what types of hexagons were on the market that we could use and we were not happy with our options. I then decided to just cut the hexagons myself. I made a jig for my table saw and got to work cutting out hexagons. You can see in the pictures I made the trees removable so I can transport board easier. I still have a lot of work to get the board completed and I am shooting to have most of the work done by the end of the month. I am going to work on one scenario at a time. Once I get the board all done then I can get to work on painting my British Troops.